164. Chapter 164 Empress Beimang

Author: Chi Longying

Chapter 164 Empress Beimang

Song Xiaofu continued to tell the story of the Beimang royal tent and the golden carriage:

The empress and the late emperor had two sons. The eldest son was ten years older than the second son.

When the late emperor passed away, the eldest son was already sixteen years old, had his own power and ministers, and his position was solid.

Logically, the eldest son should succeed.

But what no one expected was that the empress imprisoned her eldest son and his personal guards, and ascended the throne herself, becoming the first empress of Beimang.

After the empress succeeded to the throne, she did not kill her eldest son. She needed the strength of the eldest son, otherwise Beimang would be divided and it would be detrimental to the country.

In order to convince the eldest son, the empress immediately made him the crown prince, and appointed Han Gu, the most talented female disciple of the chess and swordsmanship house, as the crown prince.

Not only that, in order to completely reassure her eldest son, the empress stabbed her second son, the ninth prince Yanzhen, with Qihai, so that Yanzhen could no longer practice martial arts.

On the grassland, a prince who cannot practice martial arts is looked down upon.

This move announced that the second son would no longer participate in the struggle for the throne. After the death of the empress, everything in Beimang belonged to the prince.

This operation really dispelled the prince's wariness, and the mother and son reconciled and devoted themselves to enriching the country and strengthening the army.

Song Xiaofu's narration made Xiao Luo, who was calm, secretly frightened. Li Fanxi even exclaimed: "What a cruel empress, what a vicious mother!"

"So, in Beimang, there is no one who refuses to obey the empress' orders and prohibitions."

Xiao Luo asked: "Is the golden carriage the empress' compensation for the ninth prince?"

"Master Wei's eyes are as bright as a torch."

Song Xiaofu looked at Xiao Luo with admiration, not expecting that Mr. Wei was so quick in thinking.

"In order to make up for the Ninth Prince, Her Majesty the Empress gave generous financial rewards, including mansions, gold, slaves, beauties... Some people even said that one-tenth of the national treasury was given to the Ninth Prince."

Li Fanyi said in confusion: "Wouldn't this approach arouse the jealousy of others? This ninth prince has no strength and has done nothing for the country. He has received generous rewards for nothing. There must be many people in the court who are dissatisfied."

"Yes, so I can't guess why Her Majesty the Empress did this."

Xiao Luo sighed softly: "It's really miserable for the ninth prince to meet such a mother. The empress has no intention of letting him live for long. It is estimated that the day the empress dies is the moment when the ninth prince is killed."

"Why did Mr. Wei say this?"

"When she was alive, she gave him honors. After she died, all these honors were liquidated, and she gave a prince a reason to eliminate his brothers, which was more conducive to the prince's succession."

Song Xiaofu couldn't help but shudder.

She remembered the first time she met the empress, when she was fourteen years old and had just been found by the city lord's uncle.

For some unknown reason, her uncle took her all the way to the royal court.

The empress received her and her uncle in her private royal tent.

That day, she was extremely nervous. When she knelt down to worship, she discovered that the carpet in the Queen's tent was actually old.

"Raise your head and let me take a good look."

Song Xiaofu heard a majestic voice, but it was also filled with inexplicable kindness.

She raised her head, glanced quickly at the empress, and quickly lowered her head.

The empress smiled: "My child, raise your head and look at me too."

Song Xiaofu then boldly looked at the empress.

This is a somewhat elderly woman, perhaps forty or fifty, dressed very ordinary, wearing an old blue robe, with her hair tied into two thick braids at the back of her head.

Except for a pair of extremely bright eyes, everything else is ordinary.

Song Xiaofu secretly wondered how the late emperor fell in love with her with such an ordinary beauty.

Perhaps guessing what Song Xiaofu was thinking, the empress laughed loudly and said to her uncle: "She seems to look down on me a little."

My uncle, who was usually extremely serious, actually laughed at this time: "She is still a child and is not sensible."

The empress said again: "At sixteen, it's time to be sensible."

The uncle replied: "Yes, I will educate her well."

Next, the empress asked her some trivial matters in detail, including whether she had studied, whether she could read, and how her martial arts training was going, especially about Su De and her master. She asked a lot of questions.

Finally, the empress left them to have a meal in the royal tent.

The meal was not as sumptuous as Song Xiaoyu imagined. It consisted of a wild duck, half a rabbit, and several deep-fried pancakes. The pancakes were hollow and filled with minced mutton.

The only thing that impressed Song Xiaofu was that there were two thin and long things on the dinner table. The empress said they were called cucumbers and they were bought from the Central Plains at a high price.

As for the wine from the Western Regions she drank, Song Xiaofu didn't think it was strange. Her master was a troubadour who had been to the Western Regions and brought back blood-like red wine to her brothers and sisters.

When she came back from the royal tent, her uncle told her that this was the standard used by the Empress to entertain distinguished guests. Normally, Her Majesty herself only has one dish and one cake.

"Isn't Your Majesty very rich? She rewarded the Ninth Prince with so many gold and jewelry."

Uncle just smiled.

Not long after returning to Dunhuang City from the royal tent, senior brother Su De was recommended to Tibing Mountain. He followed the fifth raccoon dog in the north and south, won many military honors, and was soon appointed as the peak master of Tibing Mountain.

But the master died not long after.

I heard that he fell into the river while drunk and even his body was soaked.

The second time I saw the empress was when my uncle passed away.

My uncle was seriously ill and had to wait until the Empress arrived in Dunhuang to close his eyes.

The empress personally presided over the burial ceremony of her uncle, and then issued a letter of appointment in her own hand, appointing Song Xiaofu as the new lord of Dunhuang City.

This was a decision that stunned the Beimang court. The ministers almost overturned the royal account, but the empress did not change her decision.

The prince remained silent.

As a result, one of the most prosperous cities in the East Grassland belonged to Song Xiaofu.

In the first three years after taking over, assassinations against the Lord of Dunhuang occurred almost every month, but the guards stopped him every time.

After each assassination case, there was a series of thorough questioning and punishment, because for one Dunhuang city lord, countless princes and ministers had their heads killed in those three years.

Three years later, the bloody lesson finally made the ministers understand that Song Xiaofu was the unshakable lord of Dunhuang City.

Some bold people even speculated that Dunhuang City was a trap set by the empress to fish out opponents.

No matter what the reason was, in short, no assassins came to Dunhuang City again. Song Xiaofu had been the city lord without any worries for eight years.

Song Xiaofu didn't think much about whether the guards who were always in danger to protect the Lord were sent by the Empress. In her eyes, Her Majesty the Empress was a person who was difficult to see through.

Hearing what Xiao Luo said at this moment, she suddenly thought of herself. After Her Majesty the Empress passed away, would she end up with the same fate as the Ninth Prince?

After listening to her being silent for a long time, Li Fanyi said impatiently: "Since the Ninth Prince has a lot of wealth, why does he want to build a golden carriage and run around?"

Song Xiaofu came back to his senses: "The Ninth Prince doesn't like to stay in the king's tent. In fact, he is a bit like my master. He likes to walk around, but the master uses his own feet, and he uses a golden carriage."

"He has no martial arts skills. If he runs around like this, no one will rob him?"

With his own experience, Song Xiaofu can easily understand the reason why the Ninth Prince is still alive.

"In the past few years before the Golden Carriage traveled, the Ninth Prince was assassinated more than a dozen times. After each assassination, thousands of heads fell to the ground. Over time, no one dared to think about the Golden Carriage anymore."

"More than a dozen assassinations failed to kill him?"

Li Fanxi couldn't believe it.

"Although the Ninth Prince doesn't understand martial arts, his coachman is at the Mysterious Realm and his maid is at the Vajra Realm. If you want to kill him, you must at least be at the Grandmaster level."

Xiao Luo concluded: "A master would never take action against a person who has no martial arts skills and poses no threat to them."

"Yes, the grandmasters in Beimang all bring their own families, or are backed by large sects. They will not kill people for gold, and once they kill people, the sects and family members behind them will not survive."

Li Fanyi suddenly realized: "In this case, it is possible that she was saved by the Ninth Prince."

Xiao Luo shook his head: "Even if you are taken away by the Ninth Prince, it is still difficult to predict whether it will be a disaster or a blessing."

After talking for such a long time, Xiao Luo almost got all the clues he wanted and said goodbye to Song Xiaofu: "Thank you City Master Song."

"You saved my senior brother, I should thank you."

"Then it's worth two."

There is no doubt that Beimang and Beili will fight soon. Whether it is Dunhuang attacking Yunzhong or Yunzhong attacking Dunhuang, Xiao Luo and Song Xiaofu have a hostile relationship, and there is no need for a deeper friendship.

"Master Wei, take care, I won't send you away."

Song Xiaofu leaned forward and watched Xiao Luo and Li Fanyi plundering out of the city lord's mansion.

Soon, a voice came from the window: "City Lord, do you want to report back to the superiors?"

Song Xiaofu sighed: "There is leakage everywhere in this city. Is there anything I can hide from Your Majesty?"

"That?"

"Reply, just say that my martial arts skills are low and I can't keep the swordsmen from the Central Plains, so I let them leave in order to save my life."
To be continued...